Officers in schools help guide student choices

Jaime Garcia has been the school resource officer at Jacksonville High School for the last 10 years.

Chuck Beckley/ The Daily News

By TABITHA CLARK - Daily News Staff

Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 05:00 PM.

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series looking at juvenile defendants and the court system.

There have always been students, teachers and administrators walking the halls of local public schools. Within the last decade or so, another figure has joined them: the school resource officer.

A school resource officer, or SRO, is a uniformed police officer assigned to a specific school as a means of enforcing the law and helping to guide students to make the right choices during the day, according to Cpl. Jaime Garcia, SRO for Jacksonville High School.

As problems in the schools have progressed over the years, so has the need for a law enforcement officer behind school walls.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years (at different schools), and it has progressively gotten different as technology advanced,” Garcia said. “It went from fighting to small gang situations to drugs. Now, we’re having cyberbullying.

“We’ve also seen an increase in bullying and prescription drugs. Prescription pills and marijuana are almost neck in neck now.”

Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series looking at juvenile defendants and the court system.

There have always been students, teachers and administrators walking the halls of local public schools. Within the last decade or so, another figure has joined them: the school resource officer.

A school resource officer, or SRO, is a uniformed police officer assigned to a specific school as a means of enforcing the law and helping to guide students to make the right choices during the day, according to Cpl. Jaime Garcia, SRO for Jacksonville High School.

As problems in the schools have progressed over the years, so has the need for a law enforcement officer behind school walls.

“I’ve been doing this for 10 years (at different schools), and it has progressively gotten different as technology advanced,” Garcia said. “It went from fighting to small gang situations to drugs. Now, we’re having cyberbullying.

“We’ve also seen an increase in bullying and prescription drugs. Prescription pills and marijuana are almost neck in neck now.”

Kaelyn Thompson, assistant district attorney for Onslow County’s Juvenile Court, stated in an email that each school year brings an increase in simple assault and disorderly conduct charges, and these charges stem largely from incidents and altercations on the bus and from disrespecting teachers in the classroom.

“The SROs do an excellent job policing these types of situations, and I believe that’s why we see more petitions filed,” she said.

Garcia said that while it is his job to enforce the law and counsel kids, he also discusses the law and how it pertains to juveniles.

“A lot of kids don’t believe they can be arrested at a certain age,” he said. “Coming from middle to high school, I tell them to take their middle school backpack off. They’re in high school now. I’m not saying the rules are different, but they’re more serious. They’re becoming adults.”

SROs also support safety and security programs in schools, such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD).

Cyberbullying, especially with the accessibility to social media, is a particular concern.

“There are smartphones now, so kids have access to (social media) any time of the day, and they can put stuff out there that can really make someone upset,” Garcia said.

The schools have been cracking down on cyberbullying by trying to limit when and where kids can use their phones and enforcing harsh consequences for those who break school policy, he said.

As an SRO spends time at a school, he or she becomes part of that small society.

“Our SROs make a concerted effort to stay out of their offices,” Onslow Schools Public Information Assistant Suzanne Ulbrich stated via email. “They make themselves accessible and visible and are a valuable resource to students, administrators, staff and members of the community.

“Resource is a key word of their job title, because in their different capacities they can be a teacher, a guidance counselor, a friend, a role model and a mentor.”

SROs want kids to speak to them openly and relate to them. It helps them to do a better job, according to Garcia.

“I sit at a table in the lunchroom, and they talk about whatever is on their mind like I am one of them. I want that open door with them because if they hold things back, I won’t know there is something going on,” he said. “If kids know you’re watching, they make better choices.”

Contact Daily News Reporter Tabitha Clark at 910-219-8454 orTabitha.Clark@jdnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @TabithaLClark or friend her on Facebook.